Fixture

After three interrupted and abandoned seasons of rugby due to the Covid pandemic Old Penarthians 1^st XV kicked off their league season last Saturday with a home fixture against Gwernyfed in Division 4 East Central of the WRU National Leagues sponsored by Admiral.

This season, following a reorganisation of the leagues at the upper levels by the WRU for season 2023/24, the Club will be pushing for one of three promotion places from the division without the fear of relegation. The division this year will also include only 11 teams due to the late withdrawal of Hirwaun who had requested and been given permission by the WRU to drop to a lower division because of the lack of player numbers and ability.

This unfortunately is a picture that is replicated in other parts of Wales where other clubs playing at higher levels have also sought demotions to reflect their current abilities.

It was not a gloomy picture at Old Penarthians however as there were sufficient playing numbers to fulfil two senior teams and a Youth XV at the weekend.  Unfortunately, opposition could not be found for the seconds and a referee could not be found for the Youth to play Fairwater

So, the central focus was on the 1^st XV where a large crowd saw a 21-13 victory to the home team in a match where the players definitely showed signs of rustiness and the lack of cohesion when pressure was applied.  This despite the good training sessions leading up to the fixture led by returning Head Coach, Jake Thomas and Stuart Clarke.

There is however no substitute for playing matches and it is the credit of all twenty players in the match day squad that at key points in the match they proved themselves better that their opposition. This was particularly true in the threequarters where the best two players on the pitch were Steffan Crimp and captain, Chris Poole.

But it was forward Josh Mellor who first enthused the crowd with a barging run after 10mins that swept four defenders out of his way and discouraging the Gwernyfed players from tackling him for the rest of the match

It was not until 30 minutes of the first half that pressure from the Old Penarthians earned them a penalty and an opportunity for three points that was kicked by Steffan Crimp.  Three minutes later a second penalty was kicked by Crimp from 40m to make it 6-0

One trait in recent seasons then came to haunt the team as a mistake straight from the kick off handed Gwernyfed a penalty that was converted by Gerwyn Williams.  The last play of the half saw the visitors attack through their threequarters for probably the only time, but great cover defence by Poole saw the danger snuffed out with a tackle into touch.  The half time score was 6-3 in favour of Old Pens.

The second half started with Old Pens deploying a number of their substitutes and after ten minutes a ruck set up near the touchline by Josh Alcock, Joel deClaire and Tom Sidford saw the ball driven up by Rhys Thomas and from a pass from Tom Hillman, Poole broke tackles to find Crimp on his shoulder to beat the cover defence from 40m and score in the corner to give Old Pens a 11-3 lead.

On 20 minutes substitute Jon Crimp mishandled with an overlap possible but the referee had decided that a penalty was due and Steffan Crimp stepped up to convert.

Five minutes later with Gwernyfed attacking down the left flank what looked like a try scoring pass from the centre to the winger was intercepted by Steffan Crimp who raced away from 60m to score under the posts. His conversion was successful and he had therefore scored all twenty-one of the Penarthians points.

Gwernyfed were however not out of the match and after 32 minutes Luke Eclkey scored for the visitors to make the score 21-8 after the unsuccessful conversion.

Then with a scrum inside the Penarthians twenty-two the referee announced that there was one minute to play.  Penarthians won the ball but instead of retaining the ball a kick into midfield gave Gwernyfed an opportunity which after a series of forward forays they took and scored close to the posts.  To everyone’s surprise the Gwernyfed scrum half rashly took a quick drop kick conversion which was missed instead of steadying himself and perhaps earning his side a losing bonus point.

 So, the final score was 21-13 and unsurprisingly Steffan Crimp was awarded the man-of-the-match award by Club Chairman, Stephen Clarke.

Next Saturday Old Penarthians 1^st XV travel to Llantwit Major for a 2.30pm kick off.